Hundreds of children and adults took shelter in a high school in Haiti’s capital to escape gunfire in a neighborhood wracked by gang warfare, the Associated Press reported.
Francisco Serifen, chief coordinator of the religious community group Kizito, said 315 people sought refuge at Saint Louis de Gonzague High School. The classrooms of the building, closed for the summer vacation, have been converted into sleeping quarters, some of the children sleeping on small mattresses provided by the organization. Others are forced to sleep on the floor.
Serifen said many of the children at the school came without their parents. Some of them are missing, and others have been prevented by the gangs from leaving the Site Solei neighborhood.
Many people died in the shootings. A year after the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise, gang violence in the country is worsening and many are trying to leave. Attempts to form a coalition government have failed, and efforts to hold general elections have been delayed.
A week ago, the UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs reported that 99 people were killed in the fighting, BTA reports.
UN aid agencies have said it is too dangerous to deliver aid to people living in the neighborhood. Jeremy Lawrence, a spokesman for the organization’s Human Rights Council, said most of the victims were not directly linked to gangs but were targeted by them.
UN agencies report that some gangs are even restricting access to food and drinking water to control the population.
